Nor crown me with a single rose the less; Nor lose one joyous hour. I fear them not. Sal. But thou wouldst arm thee, wouldst thou not, if needful?
Sar. Perhaps. I have the goodliest armour, and A sword of such a temper; and a bow
And javelin, which might furnish Nimrod forth: A little heavy, but yet not unwieldy.
And now I think on 't, 't is long since I've used them, Even in the chase. Hast ever seen them, brother? Sal. Is this a time for such fantastic trifling? If need be, wilt thou wear them?
Sal. They say thy sceptre's turn'd to that already. Sar. That's false! but let them say so: the old Greeks,
Of whom our captives often sing, related The same of their chief hero, Hercules, Because he loved a Lydian queen: thou seest The populace of all the nations seize Each calumny they can to sink their sovereigns. Sal. They did not speak thus of thy fathers. Sar.
No: They dared not. They were kept to toil and combat; And never changed their chains but for their armour : Now they have peace and pastime, and the license To revel and to rail; it irks me not.
I would not give the smile of one fair girl For all the popular breath that e'er divided
A name from nothing. What are the rank tongues Of this vile herd, grown insolent with feeding, That I should prize their noisy praise, or dread Their noisome clamour?
Sal. You have said they are men; As such their hearts are something. Sar. So my dogs' are; 1 And better, as more faithful:- but, proceed; Thou hast my signet: - since they are tumultuous, Let them be teniper'd, yet not roughly, till Necessity enforce it. I hate all pain, Given or received; we have enough within us, The meanest vassal as the loftiest monarch, Not to add to each other's natural burthen Of mortal misery, but rather lessen,
By mild reciprocal alleviation,
The fatal penalties imposed on life:
But this they know not, or they will not know.
I have, by Baal! done all I could to soothe them:
I made no wars, I added no new imposts,
I interfered not with their civic lives,
I let them pass their days as best might suit them, Passing my own as suited me.
Sal. Short of the duties of a king; and therefore They say thou art unfit to be a monarch.
Sar. They lie. Unhappily, I am unfit To be aught save a monarch; else for me, The meanest Mede might be the king instead.
Sal. There is one Mede, at least, who seeks to be so. Sar. What mean'st thou ?-'tis thy secret; thou desirest
[See MISCELLANIES, "Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog."]
[The epicurean philosophy of Sardanapalus gives him a
Few questions, and I'm not of curious nature. Take the fit steps; and, since necessity Requires, I sanction and support thee. Ne'er Was man who more desired to rule in peace The peaceful only if they rouse me, better They had conjured up stern Nimrod from his ashes, "The mighty hunter." I will turn these realms To one wide desert chase of brutes, who were, But would no more, by their own choice, be human. What they have found me, they belie; that which They yet may find me-shall defy their wish To speak it worse; and let them thank themselves. Sal. Then thou at last canst feel? Sar. Ingratitude? Sal.
I will not pause to answer
He's gone; and on his finger bears my signet, Which is to him a sceptre. He is stern
As I am heedless; and the slaves deserve To feel a master. What may be the danger
I know not: - he hath found it, let him quell it. Must I consume my life-this little life- In guarding against all may make it less ?? It is not worth so much! It were to die Before my hour, to live in dread of death, Tracing revolt; suspecting all about me, Because they are near; and all who are remote, Because they are far. But if it should be so—
If they should sweep me off from earth and empire, Why, what is earth or empire of the earth?
I have loved, and lived, and multiplied my image; To die is no less natural than those- Acts of this clay! 'Tis true I have not shed Blood as I might have done, in oceans, till My name became the synonyme of death A terror and a trophy. But for this I feel no penitence; my life is love : If I must shed blood, it shall be by force. Till now, no drop from an Assyrian vein Hath flow'd for me, nor hath the smallest coin Of Nineveh's vast treasures e'er been lavish'd On objects which could cost her sons a tear : If then they hate me, 'tis because I hate not;
If they rebel, 'tis because I oppress not.
Oh, men! ye must be ruled with scythes, not sceptres, And mow'd down like the grass, else all we reap
Is rank abundance, and a rotten harvest Of discontents infecting the fair soil, Making a desert of fertility. I'll think no more.
The Ionian Myrrha we would crave her presence. Attend. King, she is here.
Sar. (apart to Attendant). Away!
fine opportunity, in his conferences with his stern and confidential adviser, Salemenes, to contrast his own imputed and fatal vices of ease and love of pleasure with the boasted virtues of his predecessors, war and conquest. - JEFFREY.]
Can see a smile, unless in some broad banquet's Intoxicating glare, when the buffoons
Have gorged themselves up to equality,
Or I have quaff'd me down to their abasement. Myrrha, I can hear all these things, these names, Lord-king-sire― monarch-nay, time was, I prized them;
That is, I suffer'd them-from slaves and nobles; But when they falter from the lips I love,
The lips which have been press'd to mine, a chill Comes o'er my heart, a cold sense of the falsehood Of this my station, which represses feeling
In those for whom I have felt most, and makes me Wish that I could lay down the dull tiara, And share a cottage on the Caucasus
Myr. I should do both More frequently, and he did well to call me Back to my duty. But thou spakest of perilPeril to thee
Ay, from dark plots and snares From Medes-and discontented troops and nations. I know not what—a labyrinth of things--
A maze of mutter'd threats and mysteries: Thou know'st the man-it is his usual custom.
But he is honest. Come, we'll think no more on 't- But of the midnight festival.
To think of aught save festivals. Spurn'd his sage cautions? Sar. What? and dost thou fear? Myr. Fear-I'm a Greek, and how should I fear death?
A slave, and wherefore should I dread my freedom? Sar. Then wherefore dost thou turn so pale ? Myr.
I love. Sur. And do not I? I love thee far-far more Than either the brief life or the wide realm, Which, it may be, are menaced; - yet I blench not. Myr. That means thou lovest not thyself nor me; For he who loves another loves himself, Even for that other's sake. This is too rash: Kingdoms and lives are not to be so lost.
To try so much? When he who is their ruler Forgets himself, will they remember him? Sar. Myrrha ! Myr.
Frown not upon me: you have smiled Too often on me not to make those frowns Bitterer to bear than any punishment Which they may augur. —King, I am your subject! Master, I am your slave! Man, I have loved you !— Loved you, I know not by what fatal weakness, Although a Greek, and born a foe to monarchs- A slave, and hating fetters-an Ionian, And, therefore, when I love a stranger, more Degraded by that passion than by chains! Still I have loved you. If that love were strong Enough to overcome all former nature, Shall it not claim the privilege to save you?
Sar. Save me, my beauty! Thou art very fair, And what I seek of thee is love- not safety. Myr. And without love where dwells security? Sar. I speak of woman's love. Myr. The very first Of human life must spring from woman's breast, Your first small words are taught you from her lips, Your first tears quench'd by her, and your last sighs Too often breathed out in a woman's hearing, When men have shrunk from the ignoble care Of watching the last hour of him who led them. Sar. My eloquent Ionian ! thou speak'st music, The very chorus of the tragic song 2
I have heard thee talk of as the favourite pastime Of thy far father-land. Nay, weep not-calm thee. But I pray thee, do not
About my fathers or their land.
chronism. Nor could Myrrha, at so early a period of her country's history, have spoken of their national hatred of kings, or of that which was equally the growth of a later age, -their contempt for "barbarians."- HEBER]
Will overflow in words unconsciously; But when another speaks of Greece, it wounds me.
Sar. Well, then, how wouldst thou save me, as thou saidst ?
Sar. What am I then coop'd? Already captive? can I not even breathe True-true: constant thought The breath of heaven? Tell prince Salemenes, Were all Assyria raging round the walls In mutinous myriads, I would still go forth. Pan. I must obey, and yet— Myr. Oh, monarch, listen. How many a day and moon thou hast reclined Within these palace walls in silken dalliance, And never shown thee to thy people's longing; Leaving thy subjects' eyes ungratified, The satraps uncontroll'd, the gods unworshipp'd, And all things in the anarchy of sloth, Till all, save evil, slumber'd through the realm! And wilt thou not now tarry for a day, - A day which may redeem thee? Wilt thou not Yield to the few still faithful a few hours, For them, for thee, for thy past fathers' race, And for thy sons' inheritance?
Myr. By teaching thee to save thyself, and not Thyself alone, but these vast realms, from all The rage of the worst war-the war of brethren; Sar. Why, child, I loathe all war, and warriors; I live in peace and pleasure: what can man Do more?
Myr. Alas! my lord, with common men There needs too oft the show of war to keep The substance of sweet peace; and for a king, "Tis sometimes better to be fear'd than loved.
Sar. And I have never sought but for the last. Myr. And now art neither. Sar.
Dost thou say so, Myrrha ? Myr. I speak of civic popular love, self-love, Which means that men are kept in awe and law, Yet not oppress'd—at least they must not think so; Or if they think so, deem it necessary,
To ward off worse oppression, their own passions. A king of feasts, and flowers, and wine, and revel, And love, and mirth, was never king of glory. Sar. Glory! what's that? Myr.
Ask of the gods thy fathers.
Sar. They cannot answer; when the priests speak for them,
'Tis for some small addition to the temple.
Myr. Look to the annals of thine empire's founders. Sar. They are so blotted o'er with blood, I cannot. But what wouldst have? the empire has been founded. I cannot go on multiplying empires.
From the deep urgency with which the prince Despatch'd me to your sacred presence, I Must dare to add my feeble voice to that Which now has spoken.
No, it must not be. Myr. For the sake of thy realm:
Sar. Pan. Of all thy faithful subjects, who will rally Round thee and thine!
These are mere fantasies; There is no peril:- 't is a sullen scheme Of Salemenes, to approve his zeal,
And show himself more necessary to us. Myr. By all that 's good and glorious take this Sar. Business to-morrow.
Sar. Why let it come then unexpectedly 'Midst joy and gentleness, and mirth and love; So let me fall like the pluck'd rose!- far better Thus than be wither'd.
Even for the sake of all that ever stirr'd A monarch into action, to forego A trifling revel? Sar. Myr. For my sake!
I marvel at thee. What is thy motive, Myrrha, thus to urge me?
Myr. Thy safety; and the certainty that nought Could urge the prince thy kinsman to require Thus much from thee, but some impending danger. Sar. And if I do not dread it, why shouldst thou? Myr. Because thou dost not fear, I fear for thee. Sur. To-morrow thou wilt smile at these vain fancies. [weep,
Myr. If the worst come, I shall be where none
2 ["Wishing eternity to dust."- MS.]
Fate made me what I am-may make me nothing- For what he brings the nations, 'tis the furthest But either that or nothing must I be:
Thus always, none would ever dare degrade thee. Sar. And who will do so now? Myr.
Dost thou suspect none? Sar. Suspect!-that's a spy's office. Oh ! we lose Ten thousand precious moments in vain words, And vainer fears. Within there!- Ye slaves, deck The hall of Nimrod for the evening revel: If I must make a prison of our palace,
At least we 'll wear our fetters jocundly: If the Euphrates be forbid us, and
The Summer dwelling on its beauteous border, Here we are still unmenaced. Ho! within there! [Exit SARDANAPALUS. Myr. (sola). Why do I love this man? country's daughters
Love none but heroes. But I have no country! The slave hath lost all save her bonds. I love him; And that's the heaviest link of the long chain- To love whom we esteem not. Be it so: The hour is coming when he 'll need all love, And find none. To fall from him now were baser Than to have stabb'd him on his throne when highest Would have been noble in my country's creed : I was not made for either. Could I save him, I should not love him better, but myself; And I have need of the last, for I have fallen In my own thoughts, by loving this soft stranger: And yet methinks I love him more, perceiving That he is hated of his own barbarians, The natural foes of all the blood of Greece. Could I but wake a single thought like those Which even the Phrygians felt when battling long "Twixt Ilion and the sea, within his heart, He would tread down the barbarous crowds, and triumph.
He loves me, and I love him; the slave loves Her master, and would free him from his vices. If not, I have a means of freedom still, And if I cannot teach him how to reign, May show him how alone a king can leave His throne.
I must not lose him from my sight.
The Portal of the same Hall of the Palace. Beleses (solus). The sun goes down: methinks he
[There are two of Lord Byron's characteristic excel. lences, which he never leaves behind in his most fantastic expeditions, and which he has accordingly brought into his new domain of classic tragedy. One of these is his intense feeling of the loveliness of woman his power, not only of picturing individual forms, but of infusing into the very atmosphere which surrounds them the spirit of beauty and of love. A soft roseate light is spread over them, which seems to sink into the soul. The other faculty to which we allude is his
Hour of Assyria's years. And yet how calm! An earthquake should announce so great a fall- A summer's sun discloses it. Yon disk, To the star-read Chaldean, bears upon Its everlasting page the end of what Seem'd everlasting; but oh! thou true sun! The burning oracle of all that live, As fountain of all life, and symbol of Him who bestows it, wherefore dost thou limit Thy lore unto calamity? Why not Unfold the rise of days more worthy thine All-glorious burst from occan? why not dart A beam of hope athwart the future years, As of wrath to its days? Hear me! oh, hear me ! I am thy worshipper, thy priest, thy servant - I have gazed on thee at thy rise and fall, And bow'd my head beneath thy mid-day beams, When my eye dared not meet thee. I have watch'd For thee, and after thee, and pray'd to thee, And sacrificed to thee, and read, and fear'd thee, And ask'd of thee, and thou hast answer'd—but Only to thus much: while I speak, he sinks- Is gone and leaves his beauty, not his knowledge, To the delighted west, which revels in
Does the prophet doubt, To whom the very stars shine victory? Bel. I do not doubt of victory Arb. Well, let thy science settle that. I have prepared as many glittering spears As will out-sparkle our allies your planets. There is no more to thwart us. The she-king, That less than woman, is even now upon The waters with his female mates. The order Is issued for the feast in the pavilion. The first cup which he drains will be the last Quaff'd by the line of Nimrod. Bel.
comprehensive sympathy with the vastest objects in the material universe. There is scarcely any pure description of individual scenes in all his works; but the noblest allusions to the grandeurs of earth and heaven. He pays "no allegiance but to the elements." The moon, the stars, the ocean, the mountain desert, are endowed by him with new "speech and language," and send to the heart their mighty voices. He can interpret between us and the firmament, or give us all the sentiment of an everlasting solitude. Anon.]
Bel. And midst them, mark Yon earliest, and the brightest, which so quivers, As it would quit its place in the blue ether. Arb. Well? Bel.
'Tis thy natal ruler-thy birth planet. Arb. (touching his scabbard). My star is in this scabbard when it shines,
Bel. (to Arb. aside). Hush! let him go his way. (Alternately to Bal.) Yes, Balea, thank the monarch, kiss the hem
Of his imperial robe, and say, his slaves Will take the crums he deigns to scatter from His royal table at the hour-was 't midnight?
Bal. It was: the place, the hall of Nimrod. Lords, I humble me before you, and depart. [Exit BALEA. Arb. I like not this same sudden change of place; There is some mystery: wherefore should he change it?
Bel. Doth he not change a thousand times a day? Sloth is of all things the most fanciful— And moves more parasangs in its intents Than generals in their marches, when they seek To leave their foe at fault. -Why dost thou muse? Arb. He loved that gay pavilion, it was ever His summer dotage.
And thrice a thousand barlotry besides — And he has loved all things by turns, except Wisdom and glory.
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